Unless this ruling is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, a year’s worth of NLRB decisions could be invalid, and the agency would lack a quorum to make any new rulings until members are confirmed by the Senate.

That’s a victory for business groups, who contend the NLRB has become biased in favor of labor unions under Obama.

“The NLRB’s activist agenda has gone unchecked resulting in numerous actions that have overturned decades of precedent to establish micro-unions and deny employers due process rights,” said Bill Hughes, senior vice president for government affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

Under the president’s administration, the NLRB has been transformed from a neutral arbiter of labor law disputes into an activist organization whose only goal is to promote the special interests of politically powerful unions, said Geoff Burr, vice president of federal affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors.

“The president’s decision to bypass the U.S. Senate and appoint pro-union activist members to the NLRB was a political, partisan act that had to be challenged,” he said.

The president cited his powers to make appointments while the Senate is in the recess when he named three members to the NLRB last January. Republicans had blocked the Senate from confirming these officials.

But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Obama overstepped his powers because the Senate wasn’t technically in recess. Instead, Republicans forced the Senate hold to “pro forma” sessions during this holiday time period, in order to prevent Obama from making recess appointments.

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